Paris Olympics: Redemption time for Timothy Cheruiyot in race for first gold

For 28-year-old Timothy Cheruiyot, lining up in Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games feels like redemption and an opportunity for him to “keep entertaining and striving to improve.”

The latter might sound surprising for a man who has had eight fairly successful years in his professional career until you realize that he is coming off the “toughest period of my life” while attempting to win his first Olympic crown.

It all comes down to this one, though the man born in a small town called Singorwet, Bomet County on 20 November 1995 still believes he will be on the plane to Los Angeles in 2028.

Moments after shifting his training base in early 2014 to the Rongai Athletics Club under coach Bernard Ouma, Cheruiyot has gone on to dominate the 1500m event: from helping Kenya to a second-place finish in the Distance Medley Relay (DMR) at the 2015 IAAF World Relays Championships in the Bahamas - when he first boarded a plane - to claiming an Olympic silver medal.

Somehow, hidden between are World Championship silver and gold, two silvers at the Commonwealth Games and African Championships, and four Diamond League titles.

Amid all those accolades, however, a trip to Paris carries with it recent scars that have before his upturn of form this year, made many question his credentials over a distance that he ranks eighth all-time.

First was a “small injury” at the end of 2018 and early 2019 that taught him a lot about being focused and disciplined, then a niggling knee injury in 2023 that not only saw him drop out of the semifinals in the World Championships in Budapest, but also kept him out of action for seven months, leading up to this year’s impressive form.

“The knee injury diagnosis post championships meant a crucial rest period, then a fuller diagnosis and rehabilitation at home and abroad,” Cheruiot wrote in his “My Career” blog. “It's the toughest period of my life, but I had one big motivation: Olympics in Paris.”

And so, after a 1:46.56 800m at the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi on 20 April, Cheruiyot ramped up his season with two second-place Diamond League finishes in Doha (3:32.67) and Oslo (3:29.77).

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Soon enough, Cheruyot was basking in the glory of making it to his second Olympics after finishing third at the Team Kenya Olympic Trials at the Nyayo National Stadium in a time of 3:35.90.

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While that felt like a reprieve, given that he almost missed out on a Tokyo ticket after finishing fourth in 2021, more was to come in Monaco in July, when he timed a season-best 3:28.71, the second-fastest time in the distance this year.

The only man in front of him is Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who, in addition to getting the best out of Cheruiyot in their two meetings this year, remains the hot favorite to take home the Olympic crown.

Reigning World Champion Josh Kerr and namesake Reynold Cheruiyot, who admits Timothy is his role model, also remain firmly in the picture.

“No pressure. Next stop Paris,” Cheruiyot would say.